SaintBobby

Almost certainly.

I may be vociferosuly agreeing here, but isn't it comparing body parts that both the defender and attacker can "use"? eg an armpit v a a buttock...both can touch the ball legally, so if your armpit is 1mm beyond the defender's butt cheek, you're technically offside. What's happening is that VAR is exposing some of the weird laws of the game, I think. (it has other problems too)

I think you're right. Looks like there will be very little to split, say, 8th - 15th, but we should be alright from here.

Relegation now available at 25/1, to finish bottom now 250/1. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/relegation For the optimists, it's now around 11/8 for us to finish in the top 10 https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-10-finish A top six finish is as tight as 14/1 with some bookies https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-6-finish

I still am gobsmacked at how amazing this turnaround has been. Stunning. Is it basically down to switching to a fairly simple and pressing 4-4-2 (or 4-2-2-2). Must be more to it than that! Anyway, happy, happy days.

No. It's bloody horrific as well as utterly incompetent.

I'm intrigued as to how we can win football matches off the field. Will have to give it a watch now!

What's happened here? They wrongly reported his death? Gees. (Link is down on Echo site)

What a ***t

What's his best position even? I wonder if he's better as a No. 10 then a winger?

The Jan 2017 one was grim. Jan 2018 was a totral disaster. Carillo. Jesus wept. I remember when we lamented what a waste of money Agustin Delgado was. That was all of 3.6m and he even got the winning goal against Arsenal, I seem to recall.

Yeah, agree with this. If the technological margin of error is, say, 1cm then it's ridiculous to say that an image showing a player 0.5cm offside is "clear and obvious".

yeah, I once worked in an office taht fed made up rumours to the Sun and Mirror football gossip columns. We had about a 70% hit rate. My favourite was that Michael Owen was signing for Villa as he'd been spotetd ina colonic irrigation clinic in Brum.

Well, it's spread a bit beyong Saintweb...but mayeb just because Saintsweb has that kind of reach. I agree there's probably zero in it, but seemed worth speculating about....

These rumours seem to have - just about - amounted to more than totally fictional and unbased fantasy. What are folks' thoughts on the credibility or desirability of a Red Bull takeover? My instinct is that I'd be in favour, in principle as long as there isn't an absurd rebrand. I don't feel hugely wedded to the name of the stadium. Would like to keep plain old "St Mary's", but could live with something different, I guess. Becoming "RB Southampton FC" would be a pretty serious red line for me though. I think there are rules around renaming teams, fortunately.

Can you change the VAR rules without changing the laws of the game? For example, could we at least say that those looking at VAR should only look at a player's feet not whether his head or armpit is offside? Might it be a good idea to change the laws anyway - only your feet count for offside, not whether you're leaning forward and your knee is 5mm offside? I know this doesn't solve all of the VAR frustration, but it might solve some of it.

When is Valery expected back? Is he still ill?

Getting which half a goal is scored in wrong?

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/18133958.tottenham-win-puts-icing-southamptons-festive-run/ Real shame to see local papers declining so much. I can remember when the Echo was my "go to" source for Saints news and comment. It now tells us that Palace scored against us in the first half. Also praises Ralph for how Saints "set their stool out" against Chelsea. Presumably, he placed a perfectly formed turd in the centre of the pitch?

Easier fixtures? (although we have played Chelsea and Spurs twice, which are pretty tough ones) More home games than aways? (not that Saints seem to much benefit from home advantage!)

I think you can pick up the gist. It's an illustration that points matter, not just places. The two are broadly connected, but this season has a pretty crunched up bottom half of the table and only Norwich really cut adrift. I'd say 17th and 5 points clear is ikely to be longer odds than 13th and 3 points clear.

Well, most obviously on the points gap to 18th. I mean, if you're in 17th place but 15 points clear of the team in 18th, you're pretty damned safe. If you're in 14th place and just a couple of points above the drop zone, then a bit less so.

Presumbaly the likely results of the upcomign couple of games are "priced in" though? I thought 6/1 was good odds, think you can get as high as 10/1 now. Quite a turnaround from 7/4 a few weeks back.

There's always going to be subjectivity in some of the decisions, I think. Offside is at least kind of mathematically clear. Handball for a penalty? Hmmmm. Less so, really. Seems often to hinge on whether the arm was in an "unnatural position" (although you can often naturally have your arm stretched out to maintain balance). There also seem to be exemptions for the ball coming at you too fast and/or over a short distance. I'm not really sure I could define exactly when a handball should lead to a penalty. I think I know it when I see it (and Saints should have had a penalty today for Toby A's handball, I'd argue), but subjectivity seems baked into the rules here.

Yep. I'm usually the first one to scream when people say "you need 40 points for safety". 38 or fewer is often enough. This year though you can imagine a team going down with 40 points or even more. Other than Norwich being somewhat adrift, it's absurdly close from mid-table downwards.